January 2002 - July 2006 - The Jerry Quarry Foundation

he has worked with since Rooney, and now I think the right trainer can make a
big difference.Tyson will do fine until he is hurt and fighting on
automatic and then his bad habits that have become automatic over the years take
over such as, loading up and throwing one punch at a time and trying to bail
himself out with his power. He also forgets to take advantage of his short
height and he forgets to fight out of a crouch and he doesn't move his head
enough when he comes in to avoid punches.Tyson at his best was a well
oiled fighting machine who gave plenty of movement as he pursued his opponents
and he worked in behind the jab, throwing combinations to the body and head, not
just loading up one punch at at time but he stopped doing these things on a
regular basis and he became beatable. Sure he still destroyed lower
ranked opponents that were put in front of him but he lost the edge that he
needs at the upper level of the sport and that combined with age makes me think
he will never get it back. |
|4/24/05 12:56:11 PM|Massimo |Roma||4||||10|Cus D'Amato has been the greatest
trainer ever, he was more important than Tyson himself early in Mike's career. I
have seen some footage of the first Tyson's fights (or of Tyson's first fights)
and he was really scaring. Just think of his fight against Reggie Gross and how
he was able to avoid Reggie's punches in the second round just before the
knockout punch...Really amazing ! Maybe Reggie Gross, David Jaco, Jose Ribalta,
Eddie Richardson and Jesse Ferguson weren't all time great stuff, but they were
good fighters. The only fighter who was able to fight toe to toe with Tyson in
those years was Giacomo "Quick" Tillis in 1986. Sure Mitch Green went the
distance with Tyson in the same year, but from what I heard the fight wasn't
that close. I think Cus could have stepped into the ring and beaten Tyson
whenever he wanted to. |
|4/24/05 04:12:45 PM|Noam|same||same||||10|Kent - you described the situation
with Tyson very well. He went downhill when he stopped throwing combinations and
it was around the same time that all head movement stopped and he became easier
to hit.Good trainers keep the minds of lazy fighters on the job. With
guys like Tyson - who have an extremely brief attention span - that would not be
easy and you'd need a very strong character to do it.Someone, I think it
might have been Howard, mentioned that Tyson has a new trainer in Jeff Feneck,
the former triple world champion from Australia. He was the guy who fought
Azumah Nelson a couple of times. Feneck didn't have a lot of natural talent and
instead relied on fitness, stamina, strength, and mental toughness.If
Feneck can get Tyson fit, and perhaps imbue in him a few of those other traits,
then he might be more than just competitive, even though he'll never relive his
glory days.Tyson has no choice but to fight. He needs the money. So his
desire is not fueled by ambition; it all revolves around money. Whether that's
enough incentive to keep him fighting when he's hurt, I guess we will soon find
out.|
|4/24/05 04:55:03 PM|Massimo |Roma||4||||10|Noam-Even if Silvio
Berlusconi gave Tyson all of his money, Mike would be poor again in a couple of
mounths !|
|4/24/05 11:55:21 PM|Kent|Murrieta, Ca||Kentallenent@aol.com||||10|Noam, it all
centered around Tyson losing his connection to Cus.Kevin Rooney was a
former Cus fighter, a junior welterweight, who trained Tyson from the later part
of his amatuer days until the Michael Spinks fight. Rooney was the kind of guy
who was not imtimidated by Tyson and he would tell him what was up, not what
Tyson wanted to hear but Tyson didn't want someone to tell him the truth anymore
so Rooney was fired. Don King had a lot to do with it reportedly saying,
"why pay Rooney three millon dollars a fight?" It seems King wanted that share
for himself and it was around the time that King got more influence with Tyson
that Tyson started to go down hill.Rooney was sorely missed, especially
during the Buster Douglas fight, when Tyson had his buddies Rory Hollaway and
Jay Bright, an assistant from Cus' camp but not an experienced trainier, in his